


Odd Couple

by WattStalf



Series: Problematic OTP [23]
Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Marriage Proposal, Minor Character Death, Period-Typical Homophobia, Rape Attempt, Rating may go up, Weddings, averted, but at what cost, just kidding, me letting my otp sort of have nice things, the worst thing i will ever write, they arent having nice things at all, theyre awful people, warnings may be added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:41:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rather than physically lashing out, Sally manages to talk Eddie down before he takes things too far and convinces him to straighten up if he wants a chance with her.<br/>A fix-it for their relationship that really doesn't fix anything, just breaks it in a different way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've been filling out prompts and I saw one calling for a fix-it of their relationship. I wanted an AU where they could have nice things but these are two pretty awful people, so I guarantee they will not have nice things.  
> I dunno, I've always wondered that if Sally hadn't reacted physically so quickly, would he have still gone as far? Maybe, but maybe not. He was still young, and there's the slightest (very unlikely) chance that, if she tried to stay calm, he might have been able to as well. of course, my theory for why she went self-defense almost immediately is that she's been there before and she ain't goin' there again, but that's besides the point. The point is, I'm an idiot who rewrote this scene poorly and I know it.

Sighing contentedly, Sally began to remove her costume. As much as she loved how good it made her look, how it earned her several once-overs from several men, she couldn't deny how good it felt to get out of it after she'd been in it for too long. It wasn't the most practical or the most comfortable of outfits, but such was the price of trying to be a star.

When she was down to only her underclothes and her stockings, she heard a male voice, trying to sound casual, say, “Hi.”

That was just like Eddie, trying to appear cooler than he was, trying to appear suave and sophisticated when he was nothing but a punk. And it was just like him to think he could walk in on her while she was undressing and it be acceptable. She spun to face him, pulling her dress up in front of herself as an afterthought.

It didn't really come as a surprise to her that he would do something like this. The poor kid had no idea how to deal with anyone, much less her, and it was painfully obvious that he was smitten with her. That was, she supposed, partially her fault; she casually flirted with everyone she met, and put further effort into anyone who was fun. Eddie liked to play tough, but when she threw him a wink or a double entendre, she could turn him into a blushing, stammering mess. If she had taken things too far and he thought there was something really going on, the blame rested with her.

Better to nip that in the bud, she knew. “Eddie, what the hell are you doing in here? You knew I was changing.” She glared at him, letting him know that she saw him as nothing but an inconvenience.

But he wasn't deterred by that and began to approach her. “Sure I did. You announced it loud enough.” Sally stood her ground, but soon he was all too close. “C'mon, baby, I know what you need. You gotta have some reason for wearin' an outfit like this, huh?” He grabbed at her dress, pulling it away from her, and her heart sped up. Not this, not again.

When he placed his hands on her shoulders, pulling her close to him, she tried to pull back. “E-Eddie, no...” It wasn't the first time a man had tried something with her that she didn't want, that a man had tried to push things further than she was willing. Hell, she had lost count of the times she'd had to fight someone off, and she hadn't just gotten good at self-defense to deal with criminals. But she had never expected it to go this far with Eddie. He was just a kid, and somehow she had never thought of him as the same kid who would bash a criminal's brains in without batting an eye. She had never been afraid of him before.

“Sure, no,” he said with a snort. “No spelled Y-E-S, right?” He chuckled, as if he thought he was funny, and she had always laughed at his jokes before, even when he wasn't. She had always made him think she was interested, and now he was pushing her and she was terrified and she wanted to fight back.

But this was Eddie. Eddie liked to act tougher than he was, but he was already incredibly tough. He was tall and, though he was kind of skinny, he was lean and was one of the strongest, physically, on the team. If he wanted to, he could kill her without even trying, and even if he didn't want to, he had a temper and when that temper was set off, he had absolutely no self-control. She knew that it wasn't wise to provoke him, even if he was putting her in a situation she hated.

And he was just a kid, no matter how he tried to pretend he wasn't. He probably one hundred percent believed that her flirting meant something special, probably had himself convinced that this was what she wanted. Everything she had said so far he had taken to be her playing hard to get, and if she fought him off now, it would be such an abrupt change of pace to him that he would surely lose him temper. She had to try to remain calm and hope that if she reasoned with him, they could both make it out of this unscathed.

“Last time I checked, that's not how that's spelled,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now, what do you think you're doing in here?”

“What does it look like I'm doin'?” he asked with a grin. “I know ya been making eyes at me for a while and you know I been makin' 'em right back. The way you looked at me before you came in here? I know that was an invitation.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, kid, but it wasn't.” She kept her voice level, and it confused him so much that he let go of her.

“But...you an' me...I mean...”

“Eddie, listen. You're cute, I'll give you that.” She extended a hand, and he handed her dress back. “But you're moving a little too fast.” Walking back to the table where her change of clothes waited, she began to get dressed as he watched her. She breathed a sigh of relief when her back was to him. All it had taken was being a bit more firm with him, letting him know that she was serious. He wasn't a good kid, but he liked her and, as she had suspected, he didn't really _want_ to hurt her.

“Whattaya mean?” he asked, practically whining.

“I mean, think about it. You really wanna jump right into that? You come in here unannounced, thinking I'm ready? You haven't even taken me to dinner yet, first of all,” she said. “And second, you were pretty grabby. That's not polite and that isn't how you treat a lady. If you don't learn to control that, and control all that anger of yours, how do you expect to get anywhere?”

He looked positively humiliated, and she almost felt bad for that, but this _was_ something he needed to hear. “Well...I mean, if ya wanna get dinner, we could...”

“Maybe someday,” she replied, “but not today. When you're a little older and a little better behaved.” He hated being treated like a child, she knew, but when she saw a flash of anger in his eyes, she also saw him hold himself back. Already, he was taking her advice to heart. “If you can work on that, we'll see what happens.”

“I...yeah, okay. Whatever you say, Sal.” He started to stalk out of the room then, tail between his legs, but hung back to ask, “Are you...gonna tell anyone about this?”

“I don't see any need to,” she replied, buttoning the final button on her blouse. Fully dressed, she followed him to the door. “We can pretend like this whole thing never happened, but you'd better not let me catch you even thinking about trying anything again.”

“I promise,” he mumbled. His ego was bruised, but she had managed to avoid a much worse outcome, and who knew? Maybe she had actually gotten through to him. Only time would tell.

As they made their way down the hall, Hooded Justice rounded a corner. “There you are,” he said. “The others were wondering what was keeping you. And what is  _he_ doing back here?”

“Came to look for me himself,” she replied. “Come on, boys. Let's get going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit I'm sorry I'm doing this, t r u s t me, I am not trying to redeem Eddie. Other things will happen, it's just that these two are gonna get together. He's still gonna be a real piece of shit, I promise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eddie's being a brat who just wants to get his way? What the fuck else is new?  
> He's starting to try to do what she wants here, but seriously, i swear to fucking god this isn't a redemption arc.

More than humiliated, Eddie was angry. He was angry _because_ he was humiliated, but the more he thought about it, the more the anger outweighed the humiliation and the more he wanted to lash out. Why, he could wring Sally's neck for talking to him like that, for treating him the way she did and leading him on and turning him down and making him feel like an idiot and a child.

He could kill her, he could really kill her, he could punch her and kick her and really show her who was boss, but no, he couldn't. Not with Sally, not like that. He did like her, he did care about her, and he couldn't hurt her like that that; he didn't want things to be like that with her. All his life, fighting was his first resort, but he knew that, in a way, she was right in telling him that his anger was something that he needed to control.

But that didn't mean he wasn't still royally pissed off. She had flirted with him first and she had strung him along for quite some time. It wasn't his fault that she hadn't meant it, that it had been a joke that he hadn't been in on and it wasn't his fault that he pursued what she made him think was there. If he hadn't been so stunned by how firm, yet casual, she was in refusing him and the things she said, perhaps he would have fought her then. She had pushed him very close to losing his temper- one more nudge and it wouldn't have mattered that it was Sally, he would have snapped and he would have hurt her and he would have taken what he wanted from her.

That hadn't happened, though, and now he was alone at home, trying to contain his anger before he tried punching a wall again. The landlord had told him several times that the neighbors complained, and he was on thin ice already, given the fact that they were reluctant to rent to someone as young as he was. He didn't have a way to blow off steam and had to try to calm himself down on his own.

He tried to focus on the fact that she hadn't rejected him for good. She had told him that if he shaped up, then he could take her out and try again. Granted, she had also said that he had to be older, and that stung, but thinking about that didn't help to calm him down so he tried to ignore it. Maybe she would change her mind about the age thing if she saw him make great improvements, but, of course, he didn't know if he was even capable of such improvement. This was just the way he was, and even a chance with Sally might not be enough motivation.

She was gorgeous and any man in his right mind would consider him lucky to call her his, but was that really enough to warrant so much effort? Was one girl enough to make him want to change so much? He had to actually consider how deep his feelings for Sally ran, and he wasn't one to spend so much time thinking about such serious matters, but maybe that was childish of him.

He growled in frustration; all of this was getting too tangled up for him to deal with. All he had wanted was Sally, but now he wasn't even sure what it was that he wanted from her. He wanted to fuck her, sure, but when he thought about actually going steady with her, he thought he might want that as well. Before, he hadn't considered any of this. He had only realized that there was something going on between the two of them and, after some time, decided he would act on it and see what happened from there.

That hadn't ended well, and now he was here and he didn't know where any of this was going. Did he want to be with her or didn't he? Did he give a damn about what she thought about him or didn't he? How much had he ever really valued her opinion as anything more than the most beautiful girl he knew?

It would have been easy to say that he didn't and that she meant nothing more to him than a nice body and a pretty face and that she wasn't worth a further thought, but it wasn't true. He hadn't had any friends in a long time, but somewhere along the line, he had started to value the attention she gave him as more than the insignificant flirtation that it had apparently been. She hadn't made him feel like a child once before she rejected him, and when he was with her, he felt like maybe he was close to having a friend of his own after all.

He knew that he wasn't a likable person. That was nothing new to him and he had never cared about being liked, but over the course of their interactions, she had made him feel likable and she had made him care about it, at least with her. When he let himself think about it, he knew that there was something about her that made him want to be less awful and if she wanted him to change, he knew that he wouldn't be able to resist that for long.

~X~

It wasn't something that he started immediately. For an entire week after the incident, he could not meet her eye because he still burned with humiliation and therefore still burned with anger, and it would do him no good if let himself lose his temper at her now, after everything. It was much easier to avoid her and if anyone thought that he was acting strangely docile, they didn't comment on it, likely not wanting to jinx it.

The week he kept to himself was a more peaceful one for the Minutemen, but Eddie never stayed down for long. Soon enough, he was mostly back to his old self, cracking bad jokes that Sally sometimes laughed at and making snide remarks to get under his teammates' skins, though he really did try to keep that to a minimum. And he didn't make any special effort to talk to Sally more than necessary, partially still out of embarrassment but also to show that he had listened.

It still drove him crazy to watch her hang off of Hooded Justice, even knowing that it was just for show and even knowing, now, that she hadn't completely written him off as a candidate for her real boyfriend. He was still jealous and now he had to hold himself back and not try to insert himself into their conversations just to remind her that he was still there.

It was damn hard, swallowing his anger at being rejected and swallowing his jealousy and not lashing out at his teammates and trying not to be so brutal when dealing with criminals. He had a lot of anger built up and nowhere to let it out, and he knew that, in time, it would find its own way out. Something had to give, and he decided that she had never specifically mentioned that he had to be nicer to criminals, and let that be his one outlet.

He often continued to question whether or not she was worth all of this, and he sure as hell hoped she would turn out to be. This would be a lot of work to find out that she wasn't worth it or, worse, to not get his way at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sally being petty and Eddie actually trying? whaaaaaaat

Sally kept a close eye on Eddie for a bit after that, just to make sure that she had really managed to his anger for good. There was no telling when he might change his mind or lose his temper over something else and seek her out, and she had to be ready for something like that to happen. It was unlikely she could fight him off, but maybe if she was prepared or maybe she could make sure he could never get her alone.

But from the beginning, he kept mostly to himself. For the first few days after, he was even a little bit quiet, still suffering the humiliation, she was sure, but even after that, he was different. He still cracked stupid jokes and he still got frustrated over simple things, but he didn't tag along after her like he used to and he didn't pick fights with everyone over everything he could, and he generally seemed to be trying to behave better.

She was surprised by the way he kept to himself so often and the way he seemed to really be taking what she had said to heart. It really looked like he was trying to change, and she couldn't help but feel flattered that he had taken it seriously. She would have said anything to try to get him to back off, but knowing that what she had said was turning him into a better person, at least a little bit, was a good feeling.

But she kept away from him, because the last thing she wanted to do was encourage him and end up in that situation all over again. No matter how much improvement he made for her sake, he was still just a kid and he was still just Eddie, and though some of her reasons for avoiding a relationship with him were disappearing, it was not enough to change her mind completely. He was, she had to admit, handsome for his age, but there was the matter of his age, and he was little more than a punk while she was a rising star, and she had to think about her image.

And the matter of her image reminded her of the matter of her false relationship with Hooded Justice. He was far from the worst on the team to be made to pretend to date, and the air of mystery he carried certainly gave him his own level of popularity, but dating him was for his image and the group's image. Of course, Larry told her that her image was tied to the group's for now, but that didn't make this feel any less like charity work to her.

She wondered what would happen if she met somebody that she wanted to date for real, if she wanted her own boyfriend and got tired of playing games with HJ. It wasn't that she had anyone in particular in mind, but she also didn't have any shortage of options. Hollis did a terrible job of keeping his feelings for her a secret, and there was Eddie, but both of them had shared the issue of not being high-profile enough for her.

Bill certainly would have helped improve her image and they could have been a celebrity power couple, but she wasn't attracted to him. He was a good-looking man, and she supposed there should have been an attraction there, but he was so damn _good_ that she was sure dating him would bore the hell out of her. And there were plenty of men who threw themselves at her, giving her absolutely no shortage of prospects, but there was no one who caught her eye.

Really, there was no reason for her to wonder about what would happen if she wanted a real boyfriend, but she still did sometimes. She supposed she could always tell Larry to let it be known that she and HJ broke up and that she'd found someone better, and what could he really do to her? But as long as there was no one- and there certainly wasn't anyone for her, she was sure- then she would keep up with the game, even if she hated doing something like this for someone else's benefit.

~X~

A year passed without any further incident, which surprised her quite a bit. Eddie was seventeen now, and in that year, he had kept up whatever new behaviors he was trying to develop. Sally realized that whatever she had done to him had actually had a positive influence, and he wasn't the kid she had been afraid of a year prior. In fact, she barely thought of him as scary anymore, and she was so sure that he would only do it to the bad guys that she could admire the strength with which he took them down.

He was becoming a damn good hero and she was sure the others hated it. No one had ever really wanted Eddie around, even in the beginning, but he was tough and he was popular in the papers, so he was made a member of the team anyway. He was on thin ice from the beginning, and no one liked his behaviors, with several of them lobbying for him to be thrown out, but now he was actually behaving, and the worst thing he did was sometimes hit criminals a little harder than he should. There were no grounds left for him to be kicked out on, and that drove some of the others crazy, which Sally couldn't help but think was hilarious.

It had all been to protect herself, but now Eddie was better for it and everyone hated that he wasn't awful because they wanted to hate him, and it was her own private joke that had her thinking she would have made a good Comedian herself.

He was becoming even more popular as part of the team, and he had always had a sort of handsomeness to him. Now that he was a little bit more grown up and a little bit less scary, the Comedian was about as much of a hit with the ladies as Bill, another famous piece to the Minutemen. She wasn't jealous of the girls who fawned over him, and it was purely coincidence that she once again began to wonder what would happen if she decided she wanted to go steady with someone of her own choosing.

Gossip about her and HJ was on the decline, was all. After over a year of clinging to his arm when she needed to and not doing much else, and the papers had lost interest in their relationship. If they “broke up”, if he was single, would anyone really notice or care enough to try to pry into his personal life? He was a private enough man anyway, and the issue of Nelly's behavior really didn't change whether Sally pretended to date HJ or not.

That was really the only reason why she wondered so much, and it had little to do with any new prospects or the fact that someone was becoming more and more within her league. There was still no reason for her to worry about her own availability, and Eddie was still much too young for her anyway.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betcha thought I'd forgotten about this lame story. But I didn't. So here we are.

Eddie sometimes felt as though he was going out of his mind. He felt like he had absolutely not hope of maintaining this new image, this act that he was trying out just because Sally had asked him to. It got to be so hard, keeping himself from blowing up all the time and forcing his anger under his control, and even if he knew that that was the way he was supposed to be, it did not make things any easier for him. All his life, he had been one way, and now he was doing all he could to be another.

He knew that Sally must mean a hell of a lot to him for him to keep this up, but there was a bit more to it than that. The way he was before had never worked out for him; there was a reason he had run away from home, that he lived alone and that he didn't really have any friends, and as much as he liked to pretend that he didn't care, he was so damn lonely all the time. That was why he had grown so attached to Sally and why he wanted her enough to try to be a better person, and if he were a better person, maybe the other things might fix themselves.

But he really did feel like he was losing it, trying to keep it in all the time. It was so much easier to just let it all out, even if the consequences were so great that he had been lead to this much loneliness. His frustrations were only growing with time, as well, considering the fact that Sally _still_ wouldn't give him the time of day, despite doing absolutely everything he could to be the man she claimed she wanted him to be. Had she played him? Just the thought that something like that could be possible only fueled the anger he was fighting to hold back, and it became harder every day not to lash out at her for it.

But he didn't lash out, and he didn't even try to talk to her outside of what was necessary. He didn't try to get her alone, no matter how much he really,  _really_ wanted to, because he knew that even just trying to ask her what was going on between them could end in him losing his temper again, and that would defeat the purpose. If there even was a purpose to this, if she was actually watching the way he changed and taking note of it, if she wasn't just playing him for a fool to see if she could.

Nights were agony most of the time, and it didn't matter how irritated he was with her, he never wanted her any less, and he had wanted her so badly, for so long. When he could actually sleep, he was tormented by dreams in which he finally got his way and dreams in which he did not, in which he lost her forever and she laughed in his face, and when he couldn't sleep, which was much more often, it seemed as though he would never be satisfied until he could have the real thing. But he never, ever tried to get her alone.

So when he actually found himself alone with her, he was surprised, because he had made no effort to do so. It was hot outside, unbelievably hot, and he had nearly passed out from heat exhaustion on his way to the meeting. He wasn't in the mood to venture back outside yet, and so he had remained seated, relaxing while everyone else went their separate ways.

In fact, he relaxed so much that he nearly fell asleep, slowly drifting toward an afternoon nap, and was startled back into reality when someone stepped back into the room. He jolted, looking up to see Sally strolling into the room. “Forgot something,” she explained. “Don't let me interrupt your little nap.” She giggled, going over to pick up a bag next to the chair she had sat in.

“I...no, no,” he said, pretty sure that this wasn't a dream, but not quite sure, considering his sleepy state. “No, I needed to be headin' home anyway.” He stood up, giving her a nervous smile. If this were a dream, he was sure Sally would have come on to him, or yelled at him by now, which meant that this had to be real, and this was the first time he had been completely alone with Sally since the incident.

“Alright, well, have a nice day,” she said, then groaned as she looked through the bag. “I can't believe this. It's not here either, Larry is just going to kill me.”

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“Lost some papers of his,” she replied, waving her had like it was nothing. “I'm getting so tired of this, you know? I wonder when I can quit this hero nonsense, and get started on my real career.”

Was she actually talking to him? He couldn't remember the last time they'd had a real conversation, and it took him a moment to think of something to say. “Aw, c'mon, it can't be all bad, hangin' around here with us.”

Sally sighed and shook her head. “It isn't that. It's just that this wasn't supposed to be forever, and Larry keeps promising me that if I just wait 'a little longer', everything will work out, but that I shouldn't 'rush things'.”

“Well, maybe you should just...I dunno, be patient?” he asked. He had no idea how to give advice, especially not about stuff like this. Show business was not his business, but he also didn't want to blow it, finally getting to talk to Sally.

“I've been pretty patient,” she said, “but nothing ever seems to change. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever make it past this. I wonder if I'm ever gonna end up in the pictures, or if I'll always be stuck here.”

“Now, I know that's not true,” he said, grinning at her. “I don't know much about how ya get into stuff like that, but I _do_ know that you're gonna make it. If anyone can, it's you, and if it's any help at all, ya got my vote of confidence.”

“Aw, Eddie,” she said, giving him a smile that practically melted his heart. “I really appreciate that.” He stood there for a moment, smiling back at her, hoping she would say something else, but after a long pause, all she said was, “Well, I have to be going. You take care now.”

It was progress, but he still wasn't sure where things were going between them, and this had really done nothing to ease his own frustrations. But he still couldn't wipe the smile off his face for the rest of the day.

 


	5. Chapter 5

The thing about Eddie was that he really seemed to get things. Sally wasn't sure what it was about the kid,- who was becoming less of a kid every day- but if she tried to think of someone else on the team who really _understood_ , Eddie came to mind. Perhaps he took this more seriously than her, or perhaps he didn't, but she would have never heard anyone else calling the Minutemen a joke in the easy way that he called _everything_ a joke.

She wasn't sure why he had joined in the first place, or why he had stuck around for so long, and for all she knew he didn't actually think it was a joke, but from her point of view, it really did look like he felt that way. And she had grown so tired of pretending to be a super hero when she was just a model trying to become an actress, when all she wanted was a goddamn movie deal. Everyone else took the job so seriously that seeing Eddie's take on things was refreshing.

And then there was their recent conversation, when she had said a little more than she had meant to and let on to how she was feeling about everything. He had been so understanding, offering her actual comfort and actual advice, even if it didn't actually do much to help her situation. The Eddie who had attacked her wouldn't have said something like that, and if he hadn't genuinely changed, he was doing a very good job of disguising it.

The fact of the matter was, Sally was incredibly attracted to him. She wasn't sure when this had happened, but looking back, it had to have been going on for quite some time, and it was impossible for her to keep ignoring it. He was growing more handsome with each passing day, and he had never been hard on the eyes to begin with, and he had put forth this effort all for her, which was more than she could say for a lot of guys. His popularity was on the rise, and he was actually nice when you gave him the chance to be, and her feelings for him had changed as a result.

She wanted to be with him now, and she didn't even care that he was younger than her anymore. He was handsome and tough and had cleaned up his act just for her, and if Larry thought she was going to keep up the charade with Hooded Justice when she had someone she really wanted, he had another thing coming. It was, at the end of the day, her own decision, and she went to Larry one day to let him know just what her intentions were.

“I'm done with HJ,” she said bluntly. “I'm 'breaking up' with him, so to speak.”

“Like hell you are,” Larry muttered, not even bothering to look up from his desk at her, finding his paperwork much more interesting.

“What's that supposed to mean?” she snapped. “I'm not doing this anymore! Don't you think we've drug this out long enough? No one even cares anymore, and I think I've done enough for you. I'd like to be able to actually date someone seriously now.”

“You don't really have a choice in the matter. As long as you're my client and as long as we're trying to keep this team looking good, you and HJ are an item. At least, as far as the media is concerned,” he replied. “If you wanna fuck someone on your own time, fine, but you better not go public with it.”

“ _I_ don't have a choice in the matter?” she asked, her voice sharp. “Last time I checked, _I'm_ the one dating him. _I'm_ the one wearing the fishnets and the high heels. If I want to go steady with someone else, you bet your ass it's _my_ choice.”

“Is that right?” asked Larry. “Because last time _I_ checked, I'm the one _getting_ you checks. I'm the reason you or anyone else on this team gets any damn money, and as long as you work for me, you're going to have to play by my rules. And as long as you're playing by my rules, you don't have any choice in the matter.”

“Well, then maybe I won't play by your rules anymore,” she said, smirking. “I'm the star of this show, remember? Maybe I'll just do whatever I want, and maybe I won't give a damn what you have to say about it. I'm pretty popular on my own, so I don't think I need to keep listening to you about this, or anything else.”

“Listen, cupcake,” he said, and now he was mimicking her smirk, “without me, there's no Minutemen. And without me, there sure as hell ain't not Sally Jupiter either. See how well you do on your own, I dare you.”

Sally paused for a moment, defeated. She knew that Larry was right, and that if he were gone, not only was her career hopeless, but the Minutemen were doomed to collapse eventually. Sighing, she said, “You just don't understand how hard it is.”

“Aw, trust me, I know,” he said, his face softening. “It's lonely at the top, and the work gets hard sometimes. You've always done a good job of getting whatever you needed to do done. You really are the best client I've ever had, you know?”

“I just don't want to be stuck dating someone I have no interest in,” she said. “Nobody pays attention to me and HJ at all anymore. The whole act is getting old, and I'm sure no one would notice anything off about him if he weren't with me anymore. I just want to do something for me, just a little something. You can understand that, can't you?”

Larry was breaking down, and she had to fight to keep her face sad, to not let him know that she was working him. “I do want you to be happy, you know. I just get worried about that man, and I'm afraid that Nelly won't be able to be subtle forever.”

“I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think it will,” she said. “I just don't want to have to hide it if I meet somebody that I want to be with. I'd just look like the bad guy if I got found out while I was still pretending to be with HJ, and imagine the rumors _then_.”

He let out a long, drawn out sigh before shaking his head. “I don't know how you do it, Sal. Fine, if you wanna break things off with HJ, do it with my blessing. But if this blows up in our faces, just remember that you're the one taking the fall for it.”

 


	6. Chapter 6

Eddie was nearly eighteen, and it had been nearly two years since the incident, when Sally cornered him, approaching him one day without warning. They hadn't had any more time alone together since their conversation about her career, but she had been more and more friendly toward him, and he had dared to let his hopes rise a little bit over time. Now, she had come after him, and when she spoke, she asked him, “Do you remember when I told you I would let you take me to dinner one day?”

“Wha- yeah, yeah, of course I do,” he said. This was it, and he knew it; his hard work was actually paying off and it may have been a long wait, but in that moment, it felt very worth it.

“And I told you that you'd have to be older and better behaved. Do you remember that part?”

“I do,” he repeated, “but I kinda thought you were just makin' that up to get me off your back.”

“Well, even if you did think that, you still tried. I could tell that you were trying, you know.” Sally grinned at him, almost teasingly. “Even if you thought I wasn't being serious, you still made the effort for me, and that means a lot. I've watched you change your attitude so much, and I really do appreciate the change. Not to mention that you're becoming one of the best looking guys I know.” When she winked at him, he thought his heart stopped.

“I...I'm glad,” he said, when he regained his ability to speak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I mean, ya had a point. I did need to make some changes, and I'm glad you like what you see now.” He tried to smirk, hoping that he didn't look to eager for what he hoped was coming next.

“I think it's high time I give you a chance to make good on your promise to take me to dinner,” she said at last. “That is, if you're still interested.” She knew just as well as he did that he was, that he would have been crazy to refuse after all this time.

“You kidding?” he asked, his grin a bit bigger than he would have liked, but he couldn't help it. “Just gimme some time to figure out a place.”

~X~

Eddie didn't make much money at his day job, but he also didn't have much to spend it on, so he had enough saved to be able to take Sally out somewhere fairly nice for their first dinner. He even had enough to spring for a nice jacket to wear over his shirt, and it almost matched the only pair of decent pants he owned, meaning it almost looked like he had a suit. One of these days, he would have to get something better together, but he hoped that Sally wouldn't mind just for one night.

Sally was wearing a red dress, something fashionable and a bit more modest and simple than what he was used to seeing her in, and she was absolutely stunning. She looked completely out of his league, and when they sat down to eat together, he saw that he was getting quite a few jealous glances from other men. It gave him a surge of pride, but he also felt a bit protective, and he wasn't sure what he would do if any of them tried to talk to Sally.

“This is a nice place,” she said. “You've got good taste, I'll give you that.”

Blushing, he shrugged and said, “I just asked around about where the best places to go were, that's all. Don't really get out much myself.”

“Nobody to go out with?” she asked. “That's surprising.”

“Aw, c'mon, Sal, that's not funny,” he grumbled.

“Who's joking? I mean it, you're quite the looker.” He would never get used to the easy way she talked to everyone, flirting as if it came naturally to her. “You're a lot more popular with the ladies than you realize, I think.”

“I guess I haven't been lookin',” he replied, trying to match her easy, flirtatious energy. “Or I have, just only had eyes for one.” Even though he said it casually, his heart sped up and his face burned as he waited for her response.

Sally let out a good natured laugh- he hoped- without any traces of malice. “You sure know how to charm a girl, don't you, kid?” She grinned at him. “It's nice to be able to spend some time together outside of work, though. And it's nice to spend some time away from everyone else, don't you agree?”

“Oh, yeah, I'm having a great time,” he said with a nod. She began talking about the others on the team after that, and went on about how some of them annoyed her, getting caught up in the topic until it was almost time to leave. It was the most genuine that Eddie had ever seen Sally in his life, and she was completely at ease, not afraid to say anything that was on her mind. She showed a bit of a spiteful side, but he couldn't say he minded that; in fact, it really only served to further endear her to him.

By the end of the night, he was even more smitten with her, if such a thing were even possible. And when she gave him a kiss goodnight, he wondered if he had died and gone to heaven at some point during the evening. They made plans to do something like this again, and for the first time in a long time, Eddie really felt like everything was going his way.

~X~

It went on like that for a while, until he officially asked Sally to go steady with him. She said that she wanted to, but that she would have to publicly break things off with HJ before she and Eddie could be open about their relationship. He didn't mind, because she said she would do it as soon as possible, but then the news of Pearl Harbor came, and the United States was going to war.

Eddie had known it was only a matter of time before America got involved in the war, and he had always known that he would enlist when the time came. Even though things were working out so well with Sally now, he knew that he still would, and even if he didn't, he was sure that he would be drafted. Eddie was eighteen now, after all, and they were looking for anyone they could find to fight.

He told Sally about this, finishing with, “An' I get it if you wanna break things off now, since I'm gonna be gone for so long and all, but...I really did have a lot of fun with you, and I wish things weren't like this...”

Sally's face softened and she said, “I understand why you're doing this, and I don't want to call it quits just yet. I mean, I've barely got you, why would I let you go that easily? If you fight your hardest, I bet the war'll be over in no time, and then you can come right back to me.”

He couldn't believe that she was really willing to wait for him, and if he had thought this had been worth it before, it was nothing compared to now. Winning Sally over had taken more time and effort than anything he had ever done before, but he supposed that was what you did when you loved someone, and he was beginning to realize that there was no way he wasn't in love with her. There was no way to tell how serious her feelings were, but if she was willing to wait for him, that had to mean something, right?

They spent his remaining time before he left doing whatever they could together. He had already informed the Minutemen that he would be leaving the team until the war was over, and for the first time in years, he wasn't the Comedian and that wasn't so bad. Sally took enough time off that it became obvious who she was spending it with, but neither of them cared.

The first night she spent in his apartment, she showed him things he was ashamed that he hadn't known how to do, and guided him through everything he needed to know to satisfy her. It was the best night of his life up to that point, but it was the first of many and another thing that was well worth the wait. But time didn't stand still for them and after waiting nearly two years for her, he was going to have to wait again, and this time, he wasn't sure how long it would be for. He was sure, at least, that it would be just as worth the wait.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEN WILL I STOP THE FLUFF AND GET TO THE REAL STORY  
> NOBODY KNOWS  
> im doing so bad at making this story not a real fix-it

“We didn't go public about me and HJ's split yet, did we?” asked Sally.

Larry sighed. “No, not yet. Why?” He seemed like he already knew the answer to the question.

“Because it's not so pressing anymore,” she replied. “I think I can keep up the charade a little bit longer. I mean, at least until the end of the war, if I have to.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “What, your new boyfriend going off to war? You don't have to answer that, by the way. I already know about it, Eddie told everyone he was enlisting. And don't worry about _that_ either, Sally. Everyone's figured out about the two of you, you aren't exactly subtle.”

She wasn't really that surprised that it had been easy to figure out, and it was true that neither of them were subtle. Waving a hand, she said, “Can you blame me? Kid grew up pretty handsome, you have to admit.”

“Be that as it may,” said Larry with a roll of his eyes, “I'm not sure you're making a good decision here. Is Eddie really the kind of person you want affecting your reputation? He can be a little more than reckless, you know. If you're going to go around dating whoever you want, you should be a little more careful in who you choose. You have to remember that _everything_ you do impacts your image.”

This annoyed Sally to no end, but she managed to mask that as she grinned and shrugged and said, “Yeah, well, you know me. Who knows how long this war is gonna last? Eddie's a lot of fun, I can't deny, but it'll be years before I get to see him again, I'm sure. I'll probably be over him long before he gets back, and maybe I'll move on to someone you approve of a little more by then.”

“I can only hope,” he said, shaking his head. “Until then, you'll continue hanging on HJ's arm for publicity, got it?”

“Of course,” she replied with a smile before saying her goodbyes and leaving him to his work. She didn't know what it was about Eddie, why he was suddenly so damn special to her when he had always just been some boy, but she didn't believe a word she said about finding someone else or moving on from him in no time. It would be a while before he came home, sure, but she couldn't see herself going on dates while she waited. When she had promised to wait for him, she had meant it.

~X~

Time didn't necessarily pass more slowly for Sally now that he was gone; she still kept a busy schedule, but whenever she had the time to herself, she did notice his absence quite a bit. The time that they had been spending together had become routine for her, and now that time was spent completely alone and she wondered what she had done before dating Eddie, despite the fact that it hadn't been that long.

She missed him terribly, and hadn't realized just how used to him she had become. It was a bit of a surprise how many of the little differences in her life that she noticed now that he was away, and she even caught herself worrying about him if she thought about it for too long. He was a capable young man, but this was war and nothing like what he experienced on the streets, and Sally only hoped that he could handle himself just as well out there.

It had always been her intention to write him a letter or two, here and there, but when she was alone like that, she was so bored and lonely that the only thing she could think about was what she was going to put into each letter. Sally didn't wait for a reply before starting the next one because she had so much she wanted to tell him, and waiting for a reply took forever. Often, she got information about him from the papers weeks before she got a letter from him, but it was always much better to get his own take on what was going on.

If he and the media were to be believed, Eddie was open about his secret identity overseas. Though the papers did not reveal his true name, he had obviously made it known that he was the Comedian when he enlisted, and they were using that to their advantage as much as they possibly could. He was more than just a solider now; he was a symbol of the United States and their efforts for freedom. They had a real live hero on their side, and they used him as propaganda more than they used him for fighting most of the time.

But he was quick to ensure her in his letters that he fought hard whenever he could and that he was a skilled soldier when he was used for such things. She was sure that he was bragging as much as he could, but she was also sure that there had to be some truth to his words. He had always been a tough one, and with the right sort of training, he had the potential to be quite fearsome.

Exchanging letters with him was one of the few things she could do to really relax, and it was then that she realized exactly why she missed him so much. Her entire life had become an act somewhere along the line, and she did almost everything she did for publicity. She hadn't had anyone she was able to be herself in such a long time, but with Eddie, she hadn't had to keep up the act. He seemed to like her better when she let her guard down and her full personality slip, and she felt so comfortable with him.

Going back to having nobody around for that was a rough adjustment, but now that she realized that that was what it was, it became even more noticeable. It would be nice to be able to really sit down and talk with him, to be allowed to vent about their teammates and exchange crude jokes and not have to worry about anything. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but it was pretty obvious that she was falling in love with Eddie, even if they had had a rough start, even if he was supposed to just be some kid to her, even if this had only been for fun. It was beyond her control at this point, and she was glad that it would be a pretty long wait before she would have the chance to express her feelings to him, because, for once in her life, she had absolutely no experience in that department.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> War chapters are my least favorite holy shit.

Eddie was doing better than alright for himself, even if the war was hard on him. And it _was_ hard, and absolutely nothing like he was used to. He had been living on his own for so long that discipline did not come easy to him, and he wasn't used to taking orders in anything, least of all fighting, but even when he grew frustrated with how different things were, he knew well enough to keep his complaints to himself.

That also took work, but he was used to keeping his mouth shut after how much time he had spent trying to win over Sally. Self-control came a bit easier to him than before, and he knew that he needed to use it here. The fact that he wasn't keeping his status as the Comedian a secret meant that he was being used for it, and without even trying, he had become famous, a symbol for the United States at war. There was talk of there being work for him stateside once the war was over, and it finally felt like his life was going somewhere.

Of course, that feeling had started when his relationship with Sally had begun, but now he was accomplishing things outside of that, which meant that, should things work out between them, he would be able to support the both of them, no matter what happened in her career. He wondered if it were a little it early to start thinking about that sort of thing, but even though they hadn't seen each other for long in person, they were still going steady, and it had been a few years. Was it really all that ridiculous for him to start thinking about their future?

And she had sent him so many letters! So many times he would get more than one from her at once because she didn't bother to wait for a reply before sending him another, and he had just been surprised to learn that she had bothered to keep in contact with him in the first place. She had really meant it when she had said she would wait for him, and was glad to know that they were still close, even with this distance, and when things got really rough, it was her letters that kept him going.

He wondered where he would be now if she hadn't talked him into cleaning up his act when he was sixteen. It was hard to imagine him making it this far with his temper out of check and with his lack of patience, and he wondered if he would have had his job opportunity, or if he would have even lasted as a soldier. How much of his success did he owe to actually listening to someone else for once?

Things were shaping up quite nicely for him, and it finally felt like everything was going his way. He felt like he was growing into the man he was supposed to be, and he liked that man quite a bit. Running away from home had been impulsive, coming to New York had been impulsive, and deciding to fight crime in a mask and joining the Minutemen had been impulsive, but when he had impulsively decided to act on his attraction to Sally, she had been the first person to make him stop and think about what he was doing, and now he had taken all of his past impulsive decisions and made something out of them.

Eddie was smarter than he had ever given himself credit for, if he actually thought about it. He was damn good at reading people and therefore good with strategy, and if he could outplay somebody, which he almost always could, he knew how to get anything he wanted. When he actually took the time to concentrate on things and wasn't driven by his temper and impulsive behavior, he was more productive than he had ever realized, and he wished that he could find a way to thank Sally for bringing this out in him, but he was already bad enough at writing letters without trying to figure out how to express those sorts of feelings.

The years went by, and even though Eddie felt like things were going well for him, the war kept dragging on. Even when Europe surrendered, the conflict in the Pacific continued, and it didn't seem like there would ever be an end to it. He was growing impatient, wishing there was something he could do on his own to end things, since the United States clearly didn't have any ideas, when they were told that something big was coming, and that the fighting should be over once and for all soon.

“Something big” was a bit of an understatement, and though Eddie didn't completely understand what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was terrifying and exhilarating all at once, to know that the US had been hiding that much power. He honestly wasn't sure what to think, other than that he was glad that was the side he was playing on, and that he was more than glad he would be able to return home soon enough. Sally was waiting for him, after all!

Just as expected, government work was discussed on his trip home, and he was told that his work as one of their agents wouldn't be much different than his normal hero life at first. He would pursue criminals, particularly the high profile “villains”, but he would do so with instruction from his employers and would receive any files they had on them. Along the line, with further training, he would be used for a lot more, they told him, and he would always remain a symbol and a war hero to the American people.

All in all, it sounded like a sweet gig, and he was more than happy to sign. He was told that he would not have to resign from the Minutemen, but that it would have to be a hobby and that his work with the government came first, and that no case details were to be shared with them. Finally, he was told that his costume would be undergoing some design changes, both to make it fit his role as a patriotic symbol more and to offer him more protection.

It would be bittersweet to see his original costume go, but when he was given a new one, with black leather and knee pads and shin guards and holsters- he had never carried a gun before the war, but he had become a very good shot and would appreciate the new advantage on the streets- he was impressed. The shoulder pieces were gaudy, one red and white striped and the other blue, with a white star, but he supposed he had to have _something_ to indicate his allegiance. Someday, however, he would have to find something to make him look more like the Comedian he was supposed to be.

Whatever the case, the war was over. It was 1945 and he was about to be twenty-one years old, and he was an American hero, welcomed home with celebration. He had never had that many people acting so damn happy to see him, and he didn't even know most of them, but there was only one person he cared about seeing anyway. Finally, he had come back to Sally.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, when will the fucking fluff end???? ugh, hannah, get it together


	9. Chapter 9

The first glimpse Sally got of Eddie absolutely stunned her. She had seen some of his pictures in the paper, and she had known that he would change while he was gone, but seeing it all in person was something else entirely. He had actually gotten a little taller, which hardly seemed possible, given the fact that he had always been very tall, and his face had matured quite a bit. Gone was the scrawny, lean young man she had known before; now, his shoulders were broad and he was muscular. He had even started growing a mustache, and if she had thought he was handsome when he was young, that was nothing compared to now.

All in all, she was very glad that she had put in the time on waiting for him to grow up and waiting for him to return to her. She had her reasons for caring about him, of course, but the fact that he looked so good now did not hurt matters in the slightest, and she was glad to have him all to herself again, especially when she saw the look of delight on his face when he saw her. Boy, had she ever missed those puppy dog eyes that she'd never seen him make for anyone else.

Their reunion was an affectionate one, and all they really wanted was to get back to her home so that they could be alone together. He had given up his apartment when he had gone to war, and she had offered to let him stay with her for as long as he needed- though they both knew that this really meant he would be moving in.

“I've missed you,” she said.

“Yeah, you mighta mentioned that a couple times,” he teased, and she swatted him on the arm.

“Don't make me take it back,” she replied, leaning in close.

“Wouldn't dream of it, Sal,” he said, and then she kissed him, hard and passionate to make up for how long she had had to go without. Really, one of the hardest parts had been the fact that she didn't have him to do _this_ for her, and she was very tired of waiting. Luckily, he seemed to have the exact same thing on his mind, and let her guide him to her bedroom, where they could enjoy their first night together in years.

~X~

“And here I thought you said you'd forget all about him before the war was over,” said Larry, before Sally even had the chance to speak.

“Yeah, well, things change,” she replied. “You haven't had me do much publicity stuff with HJ in ages anyway, so I don't see why it matters.”

“You and Eddie are together for real now, right?” he asked. “And it's a long term thing? You're serious about him?”

Sally was starting to get irritated with him. “Years ago, I convinced you to let me be with whoever I wanted. Yes, I'm serious about him, and like I told you back then, you can't stop me from seeing who I want to see.”

“Jesus, Sally, you don't have to automatically assume the negative,” said Larry with an eye roll. “I just wanted to make sure before I told you this next part. See, Eddie is famous now. Everyone wants to know what the American hero is doing, and I could tell this was gonna happen for a while now. So I had you cool things off with HJ, because I figured if you still wanted Eddie when he got back, we both stood to gain from that. The sweetheart of the USA on a war hero's arm? Couldn't have scripted it better myself!”

“So, what?” she asked, confused. “Now you're saying you _want_ me with Eddie?”

“Sure do, sweetheart,” he replied. “Think about it: the Minutemen have really been on the decline in terms of popularity. With the war on, nobody could think about anything else, but now that it's over, it's our chance to get back into the limelight. With a power couple leading the pack, that'll be easy.”

If she were anyone else, she was sure she would have been bothered by the way he wanted to use her relationship, but she had been in show business for a very long time. It was all par for the course, and it didn't matter if Larry had ulterior motives as long as she was the one getting her way. So she just gave Larry her best spotlight smile and said, “Say no more! You want a power couple, you got one.”

“Always knew I could count on you, doll.”

~X~

Eddie took the news just as well as she did. “So, you're tellin' me we can be as open as we want, and it's just gonna make us more famous?”

“Never underestimate the power of good publicity,” she replied. “Stick with me, kid, and we're gonna be stars.” They laughed at that, but they were both enticed by the idea of fame, and it wasn't long before they went public with their relationship, making a lot of headlines in the process.

The Minutemen had begun to fade into obscurity, but with all this new publicity, they were brought back into the public eye, though it was really only because of Eddie and Sally. They were every bit the power couple that Larry billed them as, and when they were alone, they often joked about Eddie taking Captain Metropolis' place. He would always say he was much too busy for that, and then they would really have a good laugh at that.

Sally was happy to be making headlines more often, and happier still that she had Eddie back, and that they were living together now. Side by side, she felt like they could accomplish anything, just like a power couple would, and it was nice to have someone she felt like she could be herself around. Whenever she needed to talk about anything, Eddie would listen, and he didn't criticize her for being petty or remind her that she had an image to worry about.

If the rest of the group had any issue with Eddie's new found popularity or his sudden prominence in group publicity despite not actually being around all that much, they didn't dare say anything like that to Sally, though she was prepared for the possibility. And she was prepared for them to question her about their relationship, but all she got were some congratulations. Something stiff and almost heartbreaking from Hollis, something sarcastic from Ursula, and something genuine, if not a bit concerned, from Bill, Byron, and Nelson. HJ didn't say anything, but he had never liked Eddie- and always seemed suspicious since that day- and Sally could just pretend he was playing the part of a jilted lover anyway.

None of it really mattered, anyway. The Minutemen were still just a stepping stone to her eventual fame, and if they didn't like her or her choice of boyfriend or her means of getting famous, that was their problem. Sally Jupiter was on her way to the top, and now she had someone by her side who actually got it.

 


	10. Chapter 10

It wasn't long after things began to pick up with the papers and the publicity of the Minutemen that Eddie got up the nerve to really address he and Sally's living situation. He knew that they were probably going to end up living together, but they had said it was only until he found a place of his own, and if he were wrong, and she didn't want him living with her permanently, he needed to know so he could start looking for a place of his own. He hesitated a little bit, just because he enjoyed living with her so much and he didn't want to risk her saying no, but he knew that he had to go through with, and so, one day he asked her.

“Sal, I was wonderin' about...me staying here,” he said.

“What were you wondering?” she asked.

“Well, do ya really want me moving back out, or d'ya think it'd be just as well if I lived with you?” he asked. “I mean, I'd pay for half of everything, no questions about that. More if I had to, my pockets are kept pretty well lined these days, but I...well, I was just wondering.”

“Oh, Eddie,” she said with a giggle. “I figured we both already knew you weren't going anywhere else. But if you really need my permission to stay here, then fine. You can live here indefinitely. After all, where would I be without my most trusted confidante?”

“That's right,” he said with a casual grin, trying to hide how excited he was. He wasn't a kid anymore, and couldn't behave like one around her. “I mean, I know all your little secrets, right? That's why ya keep me around.”

“You bet. That's the only reason,” she replied, before looking contemplative. “That, and you're good in the sack.”

He could feel his face flushing at her words, and wondered why the hell he couldn't get used to her talking to him like that, even after all this time. Clearing his throat, he put on a smirk and said, “Is that right? Well, then, maybe I can be of service to ya right now...?”

“Nice try, tough guy,” she said with a laugh, “but I gotta get ready. Larry's got some Minutemen thing he wants me to do today, remember?”

Sighing, Eddie said, “Yeah, yeah, I remember now. Try not to have too much fun without me, alright?”

Sally snorted. “I don't think you need to worry about that.”

As he sat back and watched her get ready, he thought about her relationship with the rest of their teammates. He was barely around for anything outside of publicity anymore, but he heard enough from her when she got home. It seemed every day that she had some new grievance with one of them, but he was always there to listen to her, and she said that that helped more than anything.

“It's just nice to be able to _talk_ about things,” she would say. “Larry _listens_ , but he always tells me to 'get over it, sweetheart, you're stuck with them.'”

Eddie wished he had the kind of connections she needed to get out of there and to get on with what she actually wanted to do with her life, but he doubted anything he did could help her out at all. Until then, all he could really do was keep showing up with her on his arm in pictures, and listen to her whenever she had something she needed to vent to him about. He hoped that it wouldn't be much longer until she didn't need the Minutemen at all anymore.

If anyone else listened to her, he was sure that they might think she was too angry, or really petty, but she was under a lot of stress, and he was sure that any pettiness or anger was completely justified. After all, he still had a temper, even if he had much better control of it, and even if she was too angry or too petty, he didn't exactly care. In fact, he was pretty sure that that just made her more endearing to him. He liked the way she wasn't afraid to tell him exactly what she thought of her teammates, and that she didn't keep up appearances with him.

~X~

He wasn't there when she got home that evening, because he had his own meetings to attend to, but when Eddie did get home, she was in quite the mood. “Thank god you're home,” she said, “because otherwise I don't know what I'm gonna do if I don't get to vent soon.”

“Tough day?” he asked.

“You have absolutely no idea,” she replied, before letting out a deep, frustrated breath. “I just do _not_ see why we have to keep someone like _her_ on the damn team!” There was only one “her” that she could be talking about, and that was Ursula. Sally and Ursula had always had a rocky relationship, and it did not appear to be something that could get better over time. If anything, it only seemed to get worse every day, and if there were anyone he would say Sally hated the most, it would be her.

“You know how Larry is,” he said. “He probably just thought havin' another girl would up the sex appeal.”

Sally snorted and rolled her eyes. “Because Ursula is the _epitome_ of sex appeal, right?”

“Hey, I'm just sayin' what he probably thought. And now she's been in it for so long, you guys would have to have a pretty good reason to get rid of her, right?” he asked. “Even though you hate her, you know he's not gonna get rid of her unless it'll be better for the group's image. Otherwise, ya just attract a bunch of unwanted attention and everyone wonders why she's gone.”

“But if there was already a scandal surrounding her, then it would be better for us to wash our hands of her.” There was a glint in Sally's eyes that had not been there a moment before. “And you know what, Eddie? There _could_ be a scandal with her. I mean, we all have our suspicions about her... _preferences_. It would be such a shame if that got out, wouldn't it? I mean, it would be bad for all of us, right?”

Eddie knew exactly what she was referring to, but he couldn't believe that she was actually suggesting something like that. Would she really out her own teammate just because she didn't like having to deal with her? It was that kind of ambition that he could really admire! “You sayin' what I think you're sayin'?” he asked.

“I'm just saying that if _someone_ were to find proof, it might be very bad for her, and she might not be able to stay on the team anymore,” replied Sally. For a moment, she hesitated, saying, “Is that too far? Oh, I really shouldn't be saying things like this, should I?”

But Eddie shook his head before encouraging her. “Sal, I want you to be happy, and if she's makin' ya unhappy, it's for the best if we get her out of the picture. And if Larry won't do it for you, ya know you can always count on me to do whatever you need.”

She nodded, her mind made up. “Alright, then it's settled. We're doing this.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its an update? lmao where

Sally was glad that she had Eddie helping her out with her petty revenge, because he could get just a bit more done than she could. Sure, she could do the sneaking around, but she didn't have the stealth training that he did, and she didn't fancy herself much of a spy. She hated to imagine how ridiculous she would look, sneaking around like that, and so it was for the better that Eddie was the one doing that.

He had been given a camera for the occasion so that he could gather as much evidence as possible, because once she had solid evidence, then she could do her part in the matter. Until then, all she could do was sit at home and wait for him to return, but she was in no hurry. Once they had what they needed, Ursula would be ruined in no time, and then she would have her way once and for all. A little wait between now and then was nothing in comparison to the satisfaction that would come at the end.

She wasn't sure what sort of pictures Eddie would return with, and she supposed that all depended on how far he was able to follow her and what sort of activities she actually engaged in. There were a lot of factors to take into account, but Sally was sure that he would come up with _something_ , because he was the sort of man who got things done, especially if he was doing them for her.

She tried not to take him for granted, though it was impossible to deny that she had him eating out of the palm of her hand. He had changed himself entirely for her, keeping his temper in check and making something of himself, and even now that they were together, it was obvious that he adored her and was willing to do just about anything she asked of him.

In that way, it was hard  _not_ to take him for granted, but she still cared for him as much as she always had, and she was still happy to be with him. He was the only person that she really felt like she could be herself around, after all, and the only person she could show her petty side to. Certainly, he was the only person who would help her ruin Ursula just because she didn't like the woman.

There was nobody else in the world she could team up with like she could Eddie. They really had earned the title of “power couple”; it was too bad that they had to keep their involvement a secret and that nobody would know about that.

~X~

Eddie returned much later, promising her that he should have pictures that would be perfect to incriminate Ursula, and then came the wait for them to be developed. Even during that time, Sally was perfectly patient, and once Eddie presented them to her, she could feel a wicked smile breaking out across her face. There was no way these photos could be interpreted any other way, and even if some people tried to, the vast majority would finally see the sort of woman the Silhouette was.

She had the media connections necessary for getting these out, and though she sent them off anonymously, she was sure that there were those who would know that it came from someone within the team. Whether that information was released or not didn't matter to her, because the information she sold out was only the truth, and because it became more credible if the general public knew that it came from someone who knew Ursula well enough.

The story broke in one newspaper, and then another and another, until all the papers and tabloids had picked up on the fact that the Silhouette was involved with another woman and the Minutemen was thrown into scandal. It wasn't their first scandal but it was certainly their biggest, given the fact that there was real evidence this time, evidence that nobody could ignore. And it was the first time that one of their sexualities was brought into question, which was almost a surprise but Sally wasn't going to complain about that.

As Larry dealt with the fallout, Eddie and Sally did their best to appear shocked and appalled, hiding their delight that their little plan had worked. They pretended to share in his frustration at the sudden scandal, and brainstormed with him about how he could cover it up, and shared their sympathies when he realized that he couldn't. He begrudgingly called together a meeting of the Minutemen so that they could discuss this, and Ursula sat quietly, her expression giving nothing away.

“The group can't go on like this,” he said. “People are starting to doubt us as trustworthy individuals. Already, they're asking if we're the right people to be saving them. Something has to be done before the whole team goes down, and I think we all know what that is.”

“If you're throwing me out,” she said, finally speaking up, “you might as well get on with it, though it would do you well to consider the behavior of others on the team, if we're really scrutinizing.”

Nelson gave a little cough, and Sally saw Eddie snickering to himself out of the corner of her eye. She elbowed him, and Larry went on as if Ursula hadn't said the last bit of her statement.

“We're going to put it to a vote,” he said. “Though most of us feel that the image of the team would improve drastically if you were to leave, I think it's only fair that we let everyone weigh in on it.”

And so, they put it to a vote, and so, Ursula, the Silhouette, the first woman to publicly make her debut as a costumed adventurer, was thrown out of the Minutemen. She left that day without a word, giving them all an icy look before she turned on her heel and made her exit.

~X~

It was not long later that she was murdered, found dead with her lover, and the culprit was pinned as one of the Minutemen's former adversaries. Her private life had been made public by the scandal, and without the rest of the team backing her, it wasn't hard to track her down and get revenge on her for all that the Minutemen had done to him.

Larry insisted that it was in good taste for the group to attend the funeral, though, in the end, it was just him, Sally, Eddie, Hollis, and Byron. Bill had work and Nelson had his excuses, and Hooded Justice was impossible to contact. Sally clung to Eddie's arm like she had been told to do, but a part of her was holding on for reasons outside of publicity.

She didn't know what to feel about all of this, and she didn't know if she should be the one to shoulder the blame for Ursula's death, and so she held tight to he only person who knew the truth and the only person who would keep telling her she was great, regardless.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when will i ever be free of this hell

It was only a few weeks after the funeral that Larry started getting his new plan into motion. Honestly, Eddie was surprised that he hadn't started on it immediately after she had been thrown off the team, but he supposed the man had tried to see if that bad publicity would die down on its own after he had _made the right decision_. But, in the wake of her death, questions were rising again, and the Minutemen were brought back into the limelight, and it only took a few weeks before Larry told his stars what he wanted them to do.

“Look, the fact of the matter is, we gotta prove we've still got morals, you know? And what, tell me, is a sign of good morals?”

Eddie snorted. “Fuck if I know,” he said, which earned a laugh and a shove from Sally.

“Behave.”

Larry scowled at them and said, “No answers? I'll spell it out for you. We gotta show America that we've got a good, all-American couple leading the group down the right path. We gotta show them that our couple is  _so_ perfect that no one could do wrong under their influence, former members of the team not included.”

“Larry, me and Eddie have been going out for a really long time,” she said with a sigh. “I hate to break it to ya, but it's old news.”

“Sure is,” he replied. “You two barely make a single headline anymore, _but_ if we spice things up a little, I think that could change.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I think you two need to take take things up a notch, you understand? I think it's high time Eddie made an honest woman out of you.” Larry delivered this almost casually, but silence reigned over the room while the couple let his words sink in.

He was asking them to get married. Eddie realized that, and he realized that Larry wasn't going to leave him any choice in the matter. It was possible that Sally would leave her agent over this, but if she wasn't willing to, then his only option for staying with her would be to go through with Larry's plans. He didn't like to think about himself before he won her affection, and he didn't like to think about the fact that, without her, he might not have the motivation to keep trying to not be as awful as he once was. Eddie, as much as he hated to admit it, was afraid of what he would be like without Sally.

That was not to say that he didn't want to marry her. In fact, it was the opposite, though he hadn't really confessed that to her yet. A very large part of him was so happy with her and so happy with where his life was going that he often thought about what would happen if they became more domestic. The idea of marrying her, of having children, a family, with her was more appealing to him than he could possibly say, but he wasn't sure how Sally would react and had yet to bring it up.

“So, you're asking for a big wedding,” Sally said, raising a brow. “You want us to get married as another publicity stunt to distract everyone.”

“Just like everyone loves a scandal, everyone loves a wedding,” said Larry. “It's as simple as that, sunshine. So? What do you say?”

There was a pause, and Eddie clenched a fist in his lap as he waited for her to speak. He knew that he would have to wait for her to speak before he could give his own opinion, that this was _her_ battle more than it was his, that he didn't need Larry or his stupid publicity, and he also knew that, if he didn't wait for what she had to say, he might say the wrong thing and fuck it all up.

Finally, she spoke. “If it's what we gotta do, it's what we gotta do. Everything _else_ has been for publicity, so why not do a big damn wedding to top it all off?” She snickered, before turning her attention to the man at her side. “Eddie?”

He did what he could to contain his enthusiasm, matching her energy as he said, “Well, it's just like ya said, right? Gotta do what we gotta do. Let's get hitched!”

~X~

And so, he and Sally became engaged, but her lack of excitement was obvious, and the whole thing was so damn _forced_. Not to mention her remark about everything being for publicity. He knew- or, at least, he hoped- that she didn't mean the entirety of their relationship, but it still left him feeling odd about everything. Eddie wanted this to be exciting for the both of them, but he didn't think there was much he could do about it _now_.

If their wedding was going to be forced, he supposed he no longer had a say in that, but the fact still remained that he was engaged without ever having to propose to her. That didn't sit right with them, and while there wasn't much he could do to fix the situation, there were things he could do to improve and _make_ it sit right with him. At the very least, he could propose to Sally, with a real ring and a real promise.

He wasn't a romantic, or, at least, he didn't like to think of himself as one, but he did his best to pick out a ring that he thought she might like. When he proposed to her, he didn't know what he was going to say; he knew you were supposed to say a whole bunch of fancy words, but that wasn't something he was particularly good at. He was simple, and he wondered if it would be best to keep his proposal simple as well, but even then, he wasn't sure if it would be all that special, in that case.

If he could, he would take her somewhere really nice and get down on one knee and give her a romantic speech straight out of the movies she wanted to be a part of, but that just wasn't him, and he didn't think he could do something like that. And, in the end, if he wanted their engagement to feel less forced, he knew he had to do this the only way he really could.

He waited until a night when they were home together, when they were both tired from work and ready to head to sleep, and he asked her if she had a minute before she got ready for bed.

“I'm too tired tonight, Eddie,” she said, shaking her head. “Now, if you wanna try to catch me before I head out in the morning, that might be a different story...”

“Nah, that's not what I'm gettin' at, Sal,” he replied, laughing a bit. “I've actually got something I wanna talk about.”

“Alright, let's here it.”

“Well, ya know, things are movin' kinda fast lately, and things are changing, but I want you to know, I still love you the same as when it all started. Even if we had a choice, I...” He took a breath. “I'd still wanna get married. So, I figure, I gotta do this right. Sally Jupiter, will you marry me?” He pulled out the ring to show it to her, and wondered if he should have gotten on one knee or not, but it was a little too late for that.

“Eddie...” She shook her head with a laugh. “You know you didn't have to do this, right? I'm not gonna back out of it.”

“It's not about that,” he said. “I wanted to show you that it's not just a publicity stunt for me. I really do wanna marry ya. So? Whattaya say?”

“Even if this wasn't a publicity stunt,” she replied, “I would still say yes. I'll marry you, Eddie.”

And so, despite their forced status as fiances, the odd power couple of the Minutemen privately agreed to marry one another.

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the wedding! The last two chapters are gonna talk about their marriage and Laurie.

It was Sally Jupiter's wedding day, and she was doing her best to pretend to be excited for it. Eddie was, she could tell, and so she felt bad that she didn't necessarily feel the same way about it. It wasn't that she was having second thoughts about marrying _him_ , or even really second thoughts about getting married at all, and it wasn't even the marriage itself that was causing her to feel this way.

She loved him, she really still did, and she was sure that she would have ended up saying yes to his proposal even if she hadn't already been coerced into marrying him beforehand. But the fact remained that she  _had_ been coerced, that Larry hadn't given her much of a choice in the matter, and that her wedding day was not something that she was able to choose for herself.

Even her wedding dress- custom made, one of a kind- was chosen for her by somebody else. Sure, it looked gorgeous on her, but there wasn't much that didn't, and it was made with a top that looked eerily similar to her Silk Spectre costume, despite being all white. Not to mention the fact that she was being made to wear a single glove, just as she always did when she was in costume. Her hair was to be styled just like she always did it, and Eddie was supposed to wear a mask with his tuxedo, even though his identity was pretty much public by now.

The whole thing was nothing more than a big show to give Larry the positive publicity he thought she and the Minutemen needed. Her bridesmaids had been selected by talent scouts, and the Minutemen were acting as groomsmen, though Hooded Justice had outright refused. Larry had decided to step in his place rather than fire a bridesmaid, though it was clear that he wasn't happy about it.

Just like pretty much everything else she had done, this was all for the sake of preserving some sort of image, but she wasn't even sure what that image was anymore. Years ago, when she had marched in Larry's office to tell him that she was going to date whoever she wanted, and then, when she had been allowed to break things off with Hooded Justice and go public about her relationship with Eddie, she had felt like she was making a decision for herself. She had felt like she had gained some sort of freedom, and had taken control of her own relationships.

Now, she realized just how wrong she had been about that. Even her feelings for Eddie were just another tool to Larry, and he had used that to try and preserve that  _image_ , whatever the hell it was, and to progress her  _career_ , even though she hadn't really seen it go anywhere. She was marrying Eddie, but it was not by her own choice, and if he hadn't made himself into an American hero, she might have never had the chance to marry him in the first place.

It was hard to get excited about her wedding, in that regard, and what was worse, she didn't know what it was all for. After all, she had been at this Silk Spectre bullshit for  _years_ . She had been at it for years and she was still at it, and she barely got modeling jobs anymore and she had not had a single chance to work an acting job, not even a bit part. All she had wanted was to be an actress, but even after all she had done and all she had sacrificed, she did not feel any closer to that goal.

She was not an actress; she was nothing more than she had already been and her fame was fading and meant next to nothing to begin with. Eddie wasn't quite as popular as he had been after the war either, but he didn't really mind. After all, his career didn't depend on his popularity and he had more work to do than keeping up his public appearance. Really, most everything he did in that department was for her benefit, which she appreciated, but it didn't really made it much better.

She  _did_ appreciate all that he did for her and she did love him, and she sincerely wished that she could have married him on her own time, separate from her attempts to make it as an actress. It was not a lack of love for him that made their relationship difficult; it was knowing that it would always be used as a tool for a career that she had not yet been able to advance, and that she would always look back and see him as more of an accessory than an actual significant other. She felt guilty about that, at times, but she felt frustrated more often than not.

Why couldn't she make it on her own? Hell, why couldn't she make it even with Larry and Eddie carrying her all the way? If she wasn't good enough to begin with, then why did she keep trying?  
Those were the kinds of thoughts that haunted her, the things that led to more frustration than anything else. She had always thought she had the natural beauty and talent to be a star, so it didn't make any sense to her that she was still struggling so much, and not getting any younger. Perhaps she wasn't cut out for it, but she wasn't the sort to admit defeat. She didn't know what she was supposed to do.

But she put on her best model smile as she walked down the aisle, her bouquet of yellow roses in hand. Eddie watched her walk like she was the only woman in the world, looking just as sappy as any other groom would, she was sure. For a moment, when she made eye contact with him, she forgot all of her bitterness and thought only about the fact that this was _it_. She was marrying him, for better or worse, regardless of the circumstances, and she loved him, and it was easy to tell that he loved her more than anything in the world. For a moment, she could forget that this was all a show, but then she remembered that he was wearing a fucking mask, and so were Hollis and Bill and Nelson and Byron, and she remembered that she didn't even know her bridesmaids by name.

No matter what she did, this would never be anything more than a big show, but she went through with it, saying her vows and kissing her groom, because, at the very least, she was the star.

 


	14. Chapter 14

Time passed, and the more things changed, the more the stayed the same, as the saying went. Eddie was a married man, but it didn't change much, considering he and Sally already lived together. Still, a big deal was made about the wedding, and for a few weeks there, the Minutemen were back in the news as everyone tried to get scoops on the newlyweds. It was positive publicity for as long as the publicity lasted, but then it was over.

As much as Larry had hoped that this would lead to their big comeback, it didn't; nobody was interested in the costumed adventurers anymore and the Minutemen just looked like a bunch of kids playing dress up who didn't know when to let it go. Eddie would hear things or read things asking why a beauty like Sally Jupiter was still wasting her time on it. No one seemed to understand that she was stuck in the lifestyle with no way out, and that she would fade into obscurity all together if she quit.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do to help her, but he had his own work to do, and could, at the very least, support her. And time went on like that, and she kept her frustrations to herself, though he could always tell it was wearing on her. She was growing more and more disillusioned with the life she had always wanted, and it was all he could do to try to cheer her up on a daily basis and keep her from becoming distant with him.

When Dollar Bill died, it came as a shock, perhaps more so than Ursula's death. She hadn't been popular with the public at the time, and she hadn't been a part of the group anymore, but Bill was popular among some circles even after the group began to fade, and he had seemed untouchable. Maybe it was the way his career had set him up to be almost like a fictional character, but whatever the case, when he died, the news hit hard and potentially had a hand in the Minutemen's steady decline from the spotlight.

The funeral was the opposite of Ursula's, in Eddie's eyes. Though the press was just as involved as it had been with hers, Larry had had the decency to not try to spin this in a way to make the public pay more positive attention to the group. There had been no orders on how the power couple was supposed to act, and though the team sat together, they acted as if they hardly knew each other. Once again, Hooded Justice was not in attendance, but Nelson had managed to make it this time.

They didn't put on a big show for the cameras and tried to keep things quiet, and from that point on, quiet was all they got. The fact of the matter was, no one gave a shit about the hero thing anymore, and no power couple could save them from that. People still commented, every now and then, about how cute the Comedian and Silk Spectre were together, and they would be listed when famous couples were brought up, but the fact that they were married almost made them seem more boring, in the eyes of most of the public.

And so, time went on, and things changed and things stayed the same. Eddie supported Sally while Larry tried to pick up the pieces of the career he had run into the ground, and she only showed Eddie just how much things were really bothering her. He was, she always said, the only one she could really be herself around, and as long as that never changed, he knew he could be happy, but when she grew distant from even him, he didn't know what he was supposed to do about it.

It was late 1948 when she began acting like that, and at first he thought that it was just the result of a bad day, but after a week, he knew that wasn't the case, and after two weeks, he knew that he had to do _something_ about this, but he didn't know what. They were married, and had been together for _years_ , but he was completely clueless. Eddie still didn't know how to deal with most problems other than a direct confrontation, and so, in the end, that was what he went with.

“I don't know what you're talking about.” She lied with such ease that she really could have made a good movie star, but he knew better than to be fooled by that.

“Except ya do,” he shot back. “Does it have something to do with me? If you're pissed at me, at least let me know what I did wrong, and then maybe I can try to do something about it.”

“It's nothing _you_ can fix,” she snapped. “I guess you did it, and I guess you kind of didn't too, so just forget about it!”

“Sal, you can't give me a fucked up answer like that and expect me to just forget about it. What the hell does it mean that I did it and kind of didn't? I don't understand what you're talkin' about.”

She paused before she spoke again. “I went to the doctor yesterday,” she finally said. “I'm pregnant.”

Eddie took in a deep breath as he processed what she said and let the weight of her words crash over him. A smile spread across his face before he could help it, and he said, “Now, why are you sayin' all this like it's a bad thing?”

Throwing her hands up, she shouted, “Because it _is_ a bad thing! Don't you understand? My career is _over_!”

“Huh? Why do ya say that?” Part of him wondered why she didn't _already_ think it was over, but he didn't voice that.

“Because this is it for me,” she replied. “I'll be out of commission for nine months, and then after that I gotta look after a kid, so that loses me a lot of time, and on top of that, I'll never get my body back to how it is!”

“I don't get it,” he said, shaking his head. “You're pregnant, and we're gonna have a baby! It's great news! None of that shit...none of that shit matters anymore, does it? I mean, we're gonna have a family!”

“I never said I wanted a family, Eddie.” She said this so coldly that he flinched, and it took him a moment to respond, as he was doing his best to keep his temper in check.

“The fuck kind of...Sally. How can you say that? I've always...I mean, at least, ever since I started livin' with you, I've always wanted a family,” he confessed, admitting to something he had never told her before.

That gave her pause, but when she spoke, she still sounded upset with him. “I wasn't ready for this yet,” she said. “I know what Larry's gonna say about this. Any time he'd hear about some would-be star getting pregnant, he'd say the same thing, and he's gonna tell me that it's all over for me. I worked so hard all these years, and I didn't get shit for it.”

This was the part that he had the hardest time with; after all, she was right about her career, in a way. She had put in a lot of work and had not made it where she wanted to go, and if it really was all over for her, then that meant it had been for nothing. Still, he didn't think it would be a good idea to just agree with her, so he said, “That's not true! You were real famous for a long time there. Doesn't that mean anything?”

“I was famous for putting on a costume and running around the city,” she said, shaking her head. “It was something, but...it wasn't what I wanted to be known for. At least not forever. It was just supposed to be the beginning.”

“Sally...ya never know, I mean...”

“Eddie, it's over and you know it. I'm going to have to become a mother now, and I'm not young anymore. I'm never gonna be young again.” She sighed sadly, before saying, “If I'm being honest with myself...it's been over for a long time.”

She ended the conversation there, saying that she wanted to take a relaxing bath, _alone_ \- and she emphasized that so that he would not tease and ask if he could hop in with her. He let her go, and was left alone to wonder about all of this.

Sally was pregnant, which was something that he wanted to be able to be excited about, but things were tense between them, and he didn't know if they would ever go back to how they were. It wasn't his fault that things had turned out this way, but that didn't make it any better for either of them, and things had changed so much between the two of them.

Once, they had been young and crazy about each other; once, before that, he had been an idiot kid going down a terrible path, and she had almost been a victim of that. Instead, she had lined him out and sent him down a better path, and he had turned out alright because of it. He was a _real_ hero, for one thing, and for another, he had gotten his temper under control, for the most part, and learned to think before acting. Eddie had won her heart, and he was her husband now, but to say that the romance had died would not be much of an overstatement.

No matter what, he was going to stick by her side because, no matter what, he was going to love her, and that child would always be his. He knew that she would not have such an easy time accepting their life as it was, but he would, and he would do everything he could for his family.

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh hey it's over

Sally did what she could to try to act like her usual self from that point on, but it wasn't easy. As she had predicted, Larry wasn't interested in keeping her around as a client, and they had quite the falling out over it. They both accused the other of ruining their career, and he accused her of creating an image of a woman who would sleep her way to the top, and she accused him of always being jealous of Eddie and the fact that she would never sleep her way to the top where her agent was concerned.

When she came home after that argument, Eddie offered to see if he could use his government connections and make Larry look like a Soviet spy so that he could “take him out”, but she said that she'd rather him live out the rest of his lonely life in the misery he deserved. They didn't often speak of him after that, or her dead dream of becoming an actress. She knew that he knew that she was no less depressed over it all, but she still put on the show of being the perfect housewife and mother-to-be, and they prepared for their child together.

They moved to D.C. together, because she had no further business in New York and because his political connections were growing so much that he would have to go out of town far too often to be a good father if they continued to live in Manhattan. Once they settled in there, in a place where nobody really knows her outside of her costume, Sally decided to finally get her name changed. She had held off on it after the wedding, wanting to hold on to her stage name for as long as possible, but here, she didn't want to be asked if she was _that_ Sally Jupiter, and Juspeczyk had been abandoned long ago.

Of course, Eddie was a bit better known around here, so even becoming Sally Blake didn't grant her invisibility, but it was better than nothing, and seemed like the final nail in the coffin. She was, and always would be, nothing but a burned out starlet turned housewife. Though unwillingly, she accepted her fate.

~X~

She gave birth to a baby girl, a girl they decided to name Laurel Jane Blake, and she had eyes that were somewhere between blue and green, just like her mother, and a head of thick, dark hair, just like her father. Sally didn't know what Eddie looked like as a baby, but when she watched little Laurel scream, she couldn't help but notice a resemblance between her and the teenaged spitfire her father had once been.

Sally had heard and read enough about the way a mother can instantly fall in love with their newborn child, but it had sounded cheesy to her until it had finally happened. She hadn't expected it to happen to her, but when she held Laurel in her arms for the first time, she felt, for a moment, that it was all worth it. For a moment, she forgot all of her personal failures and she forgot her bitterness, and for a moment, she was nothing but a mother and that was enough for her.

For a bit, this was enough to keep her afloat, and, combined with the way Eddie looked at her daughter with so much love that it seemed almost impossible for him, she was happier than she had been. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, she thought; maybe, having a family with the two of them was good enough for her. She would always regret losing out on her dream, but everyone was supposed to have a plan B, and maybe this was meant to be hers.

But time went on, and as much as she wanted to keep being positive, she couldn't help but grow bored with her lifestyle again. It was tiring and frustrating, trying to take care of an infant, and she never liked staying in all the time. She never liked the housewife role, but motherhood didn't offer her any days off, and whenever she complained to Eddie, he got that fatherly look in his eyes as he said that it would all be worth it, in the end.

This was something she admired about him, though it was surprising to learn that he had that side to him. She sometimes wished she had his desire for a family life, and his ability to adapt so easily to it. They weren't, she didn't think, very good parents, but he did his best without complaining, and was much better suited for this than she ever was. Had they never been as good of a match as she had thought? It was a bit too late to start thinking along those lines, though.

She had never stopped loving him, even when their relationship grew difficult and even when he began to frustrate her as much as everything else did. Things changed, and her life did not go in the direction she wanted it to, but even at this point, she could still say that she loved Eddie. He was her husband, even if they had been married for a publicity stunt, and she was glad that, if she was going to be stuck with anyone, that she was stuck with him.

~X~

Laurel grew up faster than Sally expected, and it seemed like no time at all before her baby was sitting up by herself and crawling, and then one day, walking. She was just a toddler, but it was already clear that she was incredibly beautiful, and Sally couldn't help but think that she was going to grow up into a total knockout. Even if she did resemble her father a bit, she was still her mother's daughter, and and she would surely grow up to be just as beautiful.

That was when Sally's mind started to work, and when she started to think about her daughter's future. If she got a young start, with a mother who knew more about the business, then she really did stand a chance of making it. It would be a different era, but Sally knew how to adapt and she was sure that she could help her along. Add in the fact that her mother had a history in show business and had once been a famous costumed adventurer, giving Laurie a nostalgic appeal, and she practically had it made.

It was too late for Sally; it had always been too late for Sally, but that didn't mean that it was too late for her dreams to come true. Her dreams wouldn't be coming true for her, but they would be coming true for her daughter, and wasn't that really what motherhood was all about? She would make Laurie into the star she never could be, and the two of them would be an unstoppable pair in show business. She would be a better agent than Larry ever dreamed of being, and Laurie would be the happiest little girl in the world, and they would be a famous family, with the war hero father and the knockout hero of New York, and their perfect, celebrity daughter.

The odd power couple would come out on top in the end, she just knew it. With their connections, anything was possible, and for the first time in years, she felt a sense of hope that was almost as great as what she felt when she was young. She would have the life she always wanted, even if she could only live it through her daughter, and she would give her family the world.

With Eddie by her side, she would give  _Laurie_ the world, the world she had only ever been able to dream of, and the three of them would be happy. She just knew it.

 


End file.
